San Marino to roll out open access wireless network

The Republic of San Marino has signed an agreement with Chinese vendor ZTE to deploy an open access wireless network supported by a fibre-optic backbone. The government-owned infrastructure will be managed by the State Agency for Public Services (Azienda Autonoma di Stato per i Servizi Pubblici, AASS) and will generate income by selling capacity to telcos. The AASS predicts investment of around EUR80 million to 90 million (USD99 million to 111 million) over 25 years, with anticipated revenues of EUR135 million over the same period. The network rollout is expected to take up to three years to complete.

San Marino is home to a single active cellular operator – Telefonia Mobile Sammarinese (TMS) – which is 51% owned by Telecom Italia of Italy.